“Looking at some of our most long-standing partnerships, we realized we had an entire OEM ecosystem that includes everything from custom hardware and software integration, final assembly and testing, financing options, and inventory management,” said Ron Pugh, Dell executive director and general manager, Americas OEM Solutions, in a blog post.

Dell said it will make the program initially available in the U.S. with plans to extend it to other geographies in the future.

The OEM Partner Program segments members into two buckets based on value-add and services. OEM Channel Partners provide value-added services such as custom hardware and software integration, final assembly and test, financing, inventory management, consolidation and shipping, custom support and supply-chain solutions.

OEM Channel Partners are tiered by Premier, Preferred and Registered, based on their commitment to the program and their ability to support OEM customers in specific verticals or geographies.

A second group, OEM Solutions Partners, currently includes Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Red Hat Inc. and SUSE, who integrate their intellectual property into Dell hardware. Dell said that these partnerships help manufacturers get to market quicker, save time and money on development and regulatory certifications, and extend product life cycles.

Dell officials said that the goal of the OEM Partner Program is to foster OEM customer innovation by offering a comprehensive array of value-added services and capabilities for the market.

“Navigating the partner ecosystem logistics can be difficult but leveraging the expertise we’ve built working closely with other channel partners, we believe we can make it easier for manufacturers to bring exciting solutions to market,” said Greg Davis, Dell vice president and general manager, Global Commercial Channels.

Dell history of working with OEMs to develop solutions for customers dates back some 13 years. Its 250-employee OEM Solutions unit generates about $1 billion in sales among 2,000 OEM customers representing 40 industry verticals.

“Whether they are OEM Channel Partners or OEM Solution Partners, the program is designed to maximize the services we offer customers together, every step of the way,” said Pugh.

While other vendors sport OEM programs, Pugh said that Dell’s differentiator is that “never before were there so many different providers assembled with the sole purpose of helping companies design, manufacture, deliver and support the solutions they sell to end users.”